Dr. Mirjam Twigt, Martin Jones and Nora Milch Johnsen will be presenting the research they are doing as part of the REF-ARAB project and are joined by Dr. Abdullah Yassen, lecturer at Erbil Polytechnic University and Mohamed Farahat, lawyer and program director of Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights. Elena Habersky, research associate at the American University in Cairo will be moderating the panel.
The panel convened by the REF-ARAB team explores the roles and practices of local refugee legal aid in different Middle Eastern protection contexts. Focusing on legal aid practices in Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq, the panel explores how rights of refugees are, and can be, locally navigated. In doing so, the papers presented at the panel also consider that in processes steered to increase access to some rights, other rights can be infringed, and pre-existing vulnerabilities can be exacerbated.
REF-ARAB PI Maja Janmyr says that the Refugee Law Initiative's Annual Conference provides a unique arena for global and interdisciplinary discussions of key issues in international refugee law.
-The REF-ARAB team has put together an outstanding panel on refugee legal aid in the Middle East, says Janmyr.
-Not only is there a stellar mix of both academics and legal practitioners, the panel also includes both junior and more experienced participants. As for content, the panel engages with a variety of case studies - Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt - as well as a variety of forms of legal aid - ranging from international humanitarian actors to local civil society. At the heart of the discussions lies the key concept of legal empowerment of refugees, she continues.
The University of London’s Refugee Law Initiative convenes its 5th Annual Conference on the theme “Ageing Gracefully? The 1951 Refugee Convention at 70” (link to conference website). The conference takes place between Wednesday 9 June to Friday 11 June 2021.